Advances in infertility treatment

The biggest advance in fertility treatment in the past ten years has been in vitro fertilization and the variations on that procedure. In Vitro fertilization is taking many eggs from the ovary of a woman and fertilizing those in a dish, and that's in vitro, and then allowing those embryos to grow. We used to be able to grow embryos two days, three days. Now, with media that really supports the growth of the embryo, you can grow that to day five or even day six. The longer you can grow an embryo, the better chance we have to look at how they are structurally and genetically. So we can transfer less embryos, and that's the next big part of the advantage is that now we don't have to put three or four embryos back and risk triplets or quadruplets. We're really trying to grow embryos for five days and transfer one single embryo for a single pregnancy. The other major step has been injecting a single sperm into the egg. Men with very low sperm counts where their partner would never be able to get pregnant with just having sex, now you can take a single sperm, inject it into the egg, and this has almost eliminated male fertility issues.

Hal Danzer, MD

Fertility Specialist

Co-founder and partner of the Southern California Reproductive Center, Dr. Hal C. Danzer, MD is an expert in reproductive medicine, including reproductive endocrinology, women’s health and fertility issues. As one of the most respected specialists in the Los Angeles area, over the years Dr. Danzer has helped countless patients fulfill their dreams of becoming parents.

Dr. Danzer, a reproductive endocrinologist, is board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, and serves on the faculty of the UCLA Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship Program. He is also Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Among his hospital appointments, Dr. Danzer served as Reproductive Endocrinologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as well as Attending Physician in the Cedars-Sinai Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The biggest advance in fertility treatment in the past ten years has been in vitro fertilization and the variations on that procedure. In Vitro fertilization is taking many eggs from the ovary of a woman and fertilizing those in a dish, and that's in vitro, and then allowing those embryos to grow. We used to be able to grow embryos two days, three days. Now, with media that really supports the growth of the embryo, you can grow that to day five or even day six. The longer you can grow an embryo, the better chance we have to look at how they are structurally and genetically. So we can transfer less embryos, and that's the next big part of the advantage is that now we don't have to put three or four embryos back and risk triplets or quadruplets. We're really trying to grow embryos for five days and transfer one single embryo for a single pregnancy. The other major step has been injecting a single sperm into the egg. Men with very low sperm counts where their partner would never be able to get pregnant with just having sex, now you can take a single sperm, inject it into the egg, and this has almost eliminated male fertility issues.